A Link to the Past, part 1 of 3
by StaindRedGlass
Summary: STORY 1, Part 1: The team comes across a case which uncovers some unexpected twists. Gibbs learns there was much more to what happened to his family then what he originally thought, which reveals an unexpected truth. PILOT STORY FOR THE SERIES.
1. Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION: I was recently introduced to this fanfic website. I started writing a series of stories back in August. I thought it would be a fun thing to do and I'll keep the series going as long as I can. The as long as I can, basically means as long as I can keep coming up with case ideas for the team to investigate. I do introduce a new character, my own original character who I hope you come to like as the series progresses. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the entire series I'll be writing. NOTE: This series is post-Hiatus, includes nothing of season 4. Also, the series does not include Jenny and Palmer. I've avoided using them because I'm not particularly fond of Jenny, and Palmer, well, he's alright.

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**Monday**

**Chapter 1**

Ziva steps off the elevator, walks to the bullpen, stands in front of her desk and places her bag down. She glances over at McGee's desk to notice he isn't there. She wonders where McGee is.

"I can't believe I actually got here before McGee." She muttered softly.

"You didn't." McGee answered.

She leans over the desk to see McGee partially under it.

"Why are you under my desk?" She asked.

"On Friday you asked me to fix your computer, remember." He said.

"Oh, that's right. Are you able to fix it?"

"Of course I can. I went to M.I.T. And there's no way you're ever going to get to work before me. But look on the bright-side… At least you always get here before Tony." McGee said with a smile.

Tony steps off the elevator.

"Speaking of Tony, look what the elevator brought us." Ziva said sarcastically.

Tony approaches the bullpen. He raises his eyebrow and smiles.

"Sorry McGee. No satisfying Ziva today."

McGee looks up from sitting on the floor behind Ziva's desk. McGee has a confused expression on his face. Ziva rolls her eyes at Tony's sexual comment.

"I'm fixing her computer."

"Sure you are, McGee."

Ziva just looks at Tony and wonders if he'll ever grow up.

"But that's why I'm under here."

"The sexual fantasies will have to wait, McGee. Both of you grab your gear. And call Ducky. We got something." Tony begins walking to the elevator at this point. "And you're gassing the truck, McSexualFantasy."

"What do we have?" Ziva asked as she follows after him.

"We got a dead retired Naval Captain, a dead Petty Officer, the son, and a missing wife."

"What sexual fantasy?" McGee wondered as he trails behind.

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The team arrives at the crime-scene; the Samson residence, located somewhere in Virginia. The team walks up to the house and is greeted by the Sheriff.

"You must be from NCIS." Sheriff Charles Rutten greeted them.

"Special Agent DiNozzo." Tony said as he flashes his badge. "This is Officer, David." He points to her. "Special Agent McGee." He points to him. "And our M.E. Dr. Mallard." He points to Ducky. So what more can you tell me about what happened here?"

"Not much more than what I told you on the phone. It happened sometime yesterday evening. I immediately called NCIS because I knew Jay used to be in the navy…" Sheriff Rutten begins to explain as they all enter into the house through the front door.

"Oh my God…" McGee said in amazement.

They all stop to look at the dead body on the floor.

"Yeah, he was shot in the face after opening the door, I presume." Sheriff Charles Rutten stated. "Anyway… There are no signs of forced entry. It appears he just opened the door for the person or persons responsible. Maybe he knew who it was. My guess is that this is the son, Kevin…"

"DNA will have to confirm that." Ducky stated as he starts examining the body.

"The body of Jay is in the living room. He was shot in the chest three times."

"And the wife?" Ziva asked.

"Betty… Nowhere to be found Ma'am."

"Please… Don't call me Ma'am. Call me Ziva."

"As I was saying…" The Sheriff continues. "I doubt Betty had anything to do with this."

"Why do you say that?" McGee wondered.

"She's the sweetest lady you'll ever meet. She's the type of person who welcomes you into her home and tells you all about her family and how proud she is of them. I knew the Samson's very well and I've never heard of any problems between Jay and Betty, or even their son and daughter…"

"Hold on..." Tony stopped him. "Daughter? You never mentioned a daughter when you called. Where is she?"

"Jamie… She's also missing. As we speak, I have my people looking for both of them. Also, nothing appears to be stolen from what I can remember from being here so many times."

"Thank you, Sheriff." Tony said.

"If you need anymore help, give me a ring." Sheriff Rutten walks out of the house.

Once the Sheriff leaves the area, Tony looks to the team.

"So what we have are two dead bodies… Two missing people… No forced entry… Nothing stolen… A perfect family setting…" Tony begins to ponder out loud. "Ziva, pictures. McGee, bag and tag. You take this floor. I'll take the upstairs."

Ziva begins taking pictures of both bodies. Tony goes upstairs and looks around. McGee walks to the back of the house. He notices a blood trail coming from the backstairs and leading to the backyard. Tony, who is on the second floor, finds the beginning to the blood trail.

"Tony!" McGee yelled to get his attention about what he found on the first floor. "I got something."

"So do I!" Tony exclaimed.

McGee follows the small blood trail up the backstairs. Tony follows the blood trail down the backstairs from the second floor. They both round the corner halfway between floors. They bump into each other. Tony looses his balance, grabs McGee and they both fall to the floor of the stair separator between floors, where the corner of the wall is which blocked their view from each other and caused them to bump into each other in the first place. Now, Tony is lying on the stair separator and McGee is partially on top of him.

"If you don't get your knee out of my crouch…" Tony starts a threat. McGee moves immediately.

"The trail leads to the back door." McGee said to get the change of subject going.

"Do you know where it goes after that?" Tony asked as he finally stands and fixes his clothing.

"No."

"Don't you think you should find out after you take a sample of this blood?"

"Yes, Boss." McGee follows the blood trail to the back of the house where a sliding glass door opens to the back patio.

"Tony!" Ziva shouted.

"What?" Tony shouted back.

"I think we have Feds!"

"Oh great…" Tony sighed. He runs down the back stairs. "McGee, forget following the trail. Take a sample of this blood. Quickly!"

Tony walks toward the front end of the house just as a couple men in black suits enter.

"Sorry fellas. No aliens here." Tony joked.

"We're CIA bone-head." One of the men said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. With those black suits I thought you were MIB. You know… The movie Men in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones." Tony said. "Now what do I owe this pleasure of your company?" He's being sarcastic at this point.

"We're taking over this investigation. So pack your stuff and leave."

"This is a retired dead Naval Captain, which makes it our jurisdiction. So we're not going anywhere." Tony proclaimed.

"This is a YGS site which makes it the jurisdiction of the CIA, no matter who the victim is." The man stated in a strong voice. "Escort NCIS off this crime-scene before they contaminate it." The group of CIA agents escorts the NCIS team out of the house.

The NCIS team walks to their truck. They place their belongings into the truck and get ready to leave.

"Do any of you know what YGS stands for?" Tony wondered.

"Not a clue." Ducky replied.

"Never heard of it before." McGee replied.

"Ziva?"

"Don't look at me."

"Huh…" Tony ponders over this. "Must be a CIA thing."

"I guess we're done here." Ziva stated.

"Not quite. Just because these CIA punks kicked us out of the house, doesn't mean we're done." Tony said.

"But I have no bodies." Ducky stated.

"And they took my camera." Ziva said.

"We don't need either." Tony stated.

"Why's that, Boss?" McGee wondered.

"You took a sample of that blood I asked you to, right McGee?"

McGee reaches into his pants for the closed evidence bag which contains the blood sample.

"Yes I did." McGee answered with a smile. Than he realizes what Tony meant about not needing the body or photos. "Oh…"

"They can have the crime-scene. All we need to do is find who that blood belongs to." Tony said wisely. Tony's facial expression suddenly turns perplexed. "Wait a second… McGee… Did you just pull that out from your underwear?"

"Yeah…" McGee said with a look of embarrassment upon his face.

"There's no way I'm touching that." Ziva stated.

"When I saw them take your camera, I thought they might try checking my pockets. So the only place I could think…" McGee starts defending himself.

"In your underwear, McGee… For shame." Tony slowly shakes his head. He pauses for a couple seconds. "Great job McGee! Now that's how you improvise. Ziva, you'd do well to follow McGee's example."

"By sticking evidence in my underwear? I'll pass."

McGee holds the evidence bag up to Ziva.

"Can you hold this for me?"

"I would never want to hold that. Besides, your little buddy…" Ziva points to McGee's private area. "…Might get lonely without its bagged companion."

"I'm not little…"

The team gets into the truck and heads back to NCIS headquarters.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The team is back at NCIS Headquarters discussing the case. Each of the team is sitting at their down desk inside the bullpen. Ziva is on the phone at the moment.

"We need to figure out what happened in that house, without actually having access to it." Tony said. "McGee… Pull up any and all information about the Samson family. I want to know everything about them."

"I just got off the phone with Sheriff Rutten. They still haven't found the wife or the daughter." Ziva stated.

"So at this point, all we have is the blood sample." McGee stated.

"One question McGee." Tony is wondering about something. "You're wearing a clean pair of underwear today, right?"

"Of course I am."

"Does Abby know where that bag has been?" Ziva wondered. "And I surely hope you're wearing a clean pair of underwear for Abby's sake."

"I seriously am."

There's a moment of silence.

"Alright, we're getting off the subject here." Tony said. "McGee… Did Abby tell you when she'll have the sample finished?"

"I brought it down to her the second we got back. She should have it done shortly."

McGee's phone rings so he answers it.

"Why are you so concerned about McGee's underwear?" Tony asked Ziva.

"You praise him for doing something gross."

"What does it matter? He got the sample out of the house. Unlike you…"

"Unlike me? Don't you think a camera in my underwear would've been rather obvious?"

"You could've said… I'm not really a girl. I'm just a rather built man." Tony says jokingly. "Or maybe you're a girl with a big package. Hermaphrodites do exist, you know."

"You should get your head examined."

"Probably… But putting the evidence in his underwear was the only way he could get it out of the house."

"He could've put it in his sock."

"Uh… You have a point there."

McGee puts the phone down.

"Abby said she found something really hinky with the results. We should get down there." McGee stated.

The three of them walk to the elevator in order to go down to the Forensics Lab. They get onto the elevator. The elevator door opens and they walk out. They enter into Abby's lab.

"What do you have for us Abs?" Tony asked.

"I ran the sample through all databases and found nothing. No match."

"So what's the hinky part?" McGee asked.

"I ran the sample from a different angle. Since I got no hits as a possible unknown attacker, I ran it as possibly being a family member. McGee told me the wife and daughter are missing so what I did was try to see if I could get a partial match through cross-referencing. Since the two victims were in the navy, their DNA is on record. If the blood belongs to one of the possible missing family members, then we should get a partial match to either of the victims. The sample wasn't even close to matching."

"So what are you saying?" Ziva wondered.

"Hold on…" McGee wants to make sense of this. "What's the hinky part?"

"I was just getting to that McGee. I know you guys don't have much to work with. So I thought, since it's not a partial match to the family, let me see if it's a partial match to anybody in the system. If it came out partially matching to anybody, then it would give you some direction to start. It was a long shot, but it came up with a hit."

"Abs, are you going to tell us what you found or not? Cause we really don't have the time for this." Tony said to hurry things up.

"The result of the partial match is the hinky part." Abby points to the computer screen for the others to see for themselves.

Tony and Ziva have shocked facial expressions upon their faces as they look at the screen.

"How can this be?" Ziva is perplexed.

"Are you sure about this Abs?" Tony is wondering if she made a mistake or not. "Is your computer working properly?"

"That's what I thought. But the computer is working properly. So I thought I might have messed up somewhere. I ran the sample through the databases three times and keep getting the same result."

Ziva and Tony move out of the way so McGee can take a look at the results. McGee's face drops after seeing the screen.

"The DNA you guys pulled from that house is a partial match to Gibbs." Abby stated.

The four of them are in complete shock and really have no clue what to say or even think about what was just found. A man wearing a black suit enters into the lab.

"Maybe I can shed some light on the subject. Special Agent Marcus Frank, CIA." The man introduced himself.

"Marcus Frank... Your name consists of two first names. On Monday are you Agent Marcus and Tuesday, Agent Frank? Do you flip-flop like that?" Tony asked the man.

"You'll have to excuse him. He only has a third grade education." Ziva joked.

"So why do I keep getting this result, mister CIA man?" Abby asked.

"The blood is a partial match to Gibbs because…" The man paused for a second. "…Because it's his daughter."

The room falls silent as they've never conceived something like this to ever be possible.


	3. Chapter 3

**Tuesday**

**Chapter 3**

The team is in the bullpen, sitting at their desks awaiting the arrival of Gibbs. Ziva contacted him the previous day requesting his immediate presence at NCIS.

"Gibbs should be here soon." Ziva stated.

"Did you tell him why you called him in?" McGee wondered.

"No." Ziva replied. "Agent Frank told me not to."

"Than how did you get him to agree to come?" Tony asked.

"When he left us five months ago, he told me; I owe you. I called in that favor by telling him it's extremely important and that it requires his immediate assistance. Even with not knowing why he's coming in today, he has no choice."

"Whoa… Today is going to be a shocker for him." Tony said. "Gibbs, we have a problem that we're hoping you'll be able to help us with. We have two dead people and we found your daughter's blood in the house. Oh yeah… We forgot to mention… Your daughter is alive." He said. "I mean… What do you say to something like that?"

The elevator door opens. Gibbs steps out and into view. He smiles as he's glad to see the team again after five long months. But at the same time, he really doesn't want to be here at NCIS Headquarters and thought he never would be ever again. Gibbs walks to the bullpen.

"Good to see you all." Gibbs said.

"Hey Boss." McGee greeted him.

"McGee, I'm not your Boss anymore. You can call me Gibbs now."

"Right… Hey Gibbs." McGee restated his greeting.

"I see you haven't taken my desk, DiNozzo." Gibbs makes an observation. "You're team leader now. My desk is yours."

"I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Good to see you again, Gibbs."

"You've been team leader for five months, DiNozzo. Take my desk."

Gibbs notices the team is a little jittery and realizes something might possibly be wrong. He turns to Ziva.

"Hi Gibbs."

"What's going on here?"

Suddenly, CIA Agent Marcus Frank, who is sitting at a desk behind the partition and out of view, finally stands up.

"Gibbs…" Agent Frank says to get his attention.

Gibbs looks back in Ziva's direction with an expression of disappointment upon his face. He then looks toward Marcus Frank.

"Nice way to use people, Marcus. You always seem to enjoy doing so." Gibbs said. "I have nothing to say to you."

"Well I have something to say to you, Gibbs." Agent Frank stated. "Can we go somewhere to talk?"

"If it will finally get you off my back… Then yes."

The two of them, Gibbs and Marcus, walk away from the bullpen in order to go find themselves a private area to talk.

"Whoa… Gibbs isn't very happy to see him." Tony stated.

"Guess they have some history together." Ziva replied.

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Gibbs and Marcus are now in a private area, an empty interrogation room to be exact.

"What do you want Marcus?"

"I have some unfortunate news, Gibbs. You might wanna sit for this."

"If you're dying, that's not really unfortunate news to me."

"As much as I know you don't care for me, I'd like you to please sit."

"I'll stand. I don't plan on listening to your crap for very long."

"I'll get straight to the point. There's no easy way to tell you this, Gibbs. So I'll just come out and say it. Your daughter Kelly is alive…"

"What?!?!" Gibbs now advances toward Marcus because even the slightest possibility of Kelly being alive makes him overwhelmingly happy, even though part of him thinks Marcus might be lying.

"I know I have a lot of explaining to do..." Marcus backs away and tries to put some distance between him and Gibbs.

"You think?!"

"I guess I should start at the beginning." Marcus said. "Sixteen years ago, one of our agents was gathering Intel on certain members of a drug cartel. Six of them to be exact. They didn't just deal drugs. They also dealt with some very powerful weapons and some nasty viruses. Those six men were very dangerous during that time. My agent was gathering Intel for an entire year."

"How does this have anything to do with my daughter Kelly?"

"Fifteen years ago, after one year of gathered Intel, we had a leak as we do now. My agent was compromised so he returned to the states. Unfortunately, he was followed. All the Intel he acquired over that year was on a disk. He was stabbed, but managed to get away. He was being pursued and knew he wouldn't be able to get the disk to us. He couldn't afford taking the chance that the disk, an entire year's work, would end up in their hands. He was hoping if he stashed it with somebody, it may eventually get to us. He stuffed the disk into a little girl's bag while she wasn't looking."

"My daughter Kelly…"

"Yes. Your wife was bringing the disk to us when the accident happened."

"It wasn't an accident."

"Yeah, it wasn't an accident. The man who caused the car to crash was eventually shot and killed in Mexico while he was driving his truck. We don't know who shot him." Marcus stated as Gibbs stands there thinking to himself about how he is the one Marcus is referring to since it was he who killed the man responsible for the death of his wife and supposed death of his daughter Kelly. Marcus continues talking. "But your daughter Kelly just barely survived the accident. She was pronounced dead for a couple minutes. But the doctor managed to bring her back. For fear of her life, I told the doctor to not let anybody know of this, not even you. Kelly was in a coma for a few months. We had to put her away in a safe place and change her identity. We had to make those men believe she was dead or else they would pursue her until she was. For her own protection, her being dead, was safer than her being alive."

Gibbs grabs Marcus and slams him up against the wall. He pins Marcus to the wall.

"You hid my daughter from me!"

"It's not like I had a choice, Gibbs. I know we have our differences and we've never seen eye to eye on anything. But you have to believe me when I say I never wanted to keep her from you."

Gibbs lets Marcus go as he saw the sincerity in his eyes.

"So where is she?!" Gibbs demanded to know.

"We don't know." Marcus said.

"What do you mean you don't know?! You make me come here to let me know my daughter Kelly is alive… Then you tell me you have no idea where she is…"

"That's why we need your help."

"I'll find her. You can count on it."

Gibbs walks toward the door of the interrogation room in order to leave.

"Gibbs…" Marcus tries to get his attention. "For what it's worth… I'm sorry."

"I'm sure you are, Marcus." Gibbs said in a slightly sarcastic tone of voice.

"There's something else, Gibbs."

"What?" Gibbs wondered as he turns to face Marcus.

"The disk was recovered, but only half of it could be read, so it helped in taking a couple of them out. But of the six members of that drug cartel we had surveillance on… Two of them are still alive today. They'll be trying to find your daughter. She's not safe until the last two members are dead. The file on the table has all the information you need." Marcus picks up the file and hands it to Gibbs.

Gibbs can tell there's something Marcus is keeping from him.

"What are you not telling me, Marcus?"

"She won't remember you, Gibbs. When she awoke from her coma, she didn't remember anything. It was the perfect opportunity to completely change her identity. We never tried helping her recover her memory at all. It would've been too risky if she tried to contact you due to remembering. So my people tried as hard as they could to make her believe she's someone other than who she actually is. She's now Jamie Samson."

"Are you trying to tell me my own daughter won't even recognize me?"

"She never showed any signs of remembering anything before the crash. We wanted to keep it that way… To keep her safe." Marcus said. "Again… I'm sorry, Gibbs. I never wanted to keep her from you."

"That's Agent Gibbs to you Marcus."

Gibbs storms out of the interrogation room and leans up against the wall. Marcus leaves the room and walks away in order to leave the building. Gibbs takes a deep breath and waits a moment to collect himself from everything that was just revealed. After taking some time to handle the shocking news he received from Agent Frank, he looks at the file. Gibbs walks to the bullpen. He immediately walks to McGee and drops the file on his desk.

"Find out whatever you can on the two scumbags from the first page."

"Gibbs…." Tony tries to get his attention.

"What is it, DiNozzo?!"

"I can't allow you to work on this case."

Gibbs walks over to Tony and stands in his face. He stares Tony in the eyes.

"And why's that DiNozzo?"

"You're just a civilian, Gibbs. I can't allow it."

Gibbs holds his hand out with the palm facing upward.

"Badge…"

"You'll have to fill out an application and give it to the Director for processing." Tony leans to the side in order to grab an application.

Gibbs smacks Tony on the back of the head.

"Application done… You're hired. I also promote you to being my Boss."

"My badge DiNozzo."

"Here you go, Boss." Tony places the badge in Gibbs' hand. "Welcome back."

"McGee…" Gibbs tries to get his attention. "Get on that file!"

"On it, Boss."

"You two with me."

Gibbs heads toward the elevator.

"Boss, I don't…I don't have a badge!" Tony exclaimed.

"Not my problem, DiNozzo." Gibbs answered.

Ziva walks over to Tony.

"What are you smiling about, Ziva?"

"I was just thinking. Since you don't have a badge, you can always use the glow-in-the-dark badge you got from your Cap'N Crunch cereal box." Ziva joked.

"Haha… For your information it was Fruit Loops." Tony said. "Huh… You do realize the Director is going to have a problem with this, especially if she filed his retirement papers."

"Maybe she didn't." Ziva said.

"Are you two coming or what?!" Gibbs shouted.

"Coming Boss." Both Tony and Ziva replied.

The elevator door closes with the three of them inside.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The NCIS team, except for McGee, arrives at the Samson residence in Virginia. CIA Special Agent Marcus Frank granted them access to the crime-scene. They enter into the house and walk upstairs.

"What are we doing here exactly, Boss?" Tony asked. "The CIA gave us a copy of all the evidence."

"We're here to find where Jamie may have possibly gone, DiNozzo."

"The blood trail starts here." Ziva said as she examined the drops of blood on the floor.

"McGee said the trail leads to the backyard. But he didn't know where it went after that." Tony said.

"Don't you think you should find out?" Gibbs stated.

"You know, I said the same exact thing when McGee didn't know where it led to."

"DiNozzo…"

"Right…" Tony looks at the blood trail.

Tony and Ziva follow the blood trail down the backstairs. Tony stops halfway down the stairs. He turns around to say something to Gibbs.

"Do you know what YGS stands for?"

"DiNozzo!"

"Nah, it doesn't stand for DiNozzo."

Gibbs glares at Tony.

"Right… The blood trail."

Tony continues down the stairs to catch up to Ziva who is close to the back door at this point. Gibbs just shakes his head and thinks how being team leader for five months hasn't gotten Tony to grow up yet. Tony is now at the back door with Ziva.

"You're still trying to figure out what YGS stands for?" Ziva asked.

"Isn't it eating you up inside that you don't know what it means?" Tony replied.

"Not really."

"Gibbs knows. He's just not telling me."

"Let's just find the end of this trail, Tony."

Gibbs enters Jamie's room. He sees an overabundance of horse items such as; statues, posters, stuffed animals, etc. He then notices signs of a struggle; a knocked over table, a broken lamp, and a few other items on the floor. Gibbs walks to the desk. He sees a photo in a picture-frame. His heart begins to beat rapidly as he sees the picture of what Jamie, his daughter, looks like. Gibbs feels an overwhelming sense of sadness as a single tear rolls down his cheek. He picks up a picture-frame which contains the recent photo of Jamie holding a stuffed animal. In the photo, Jamie looks so happy. Gibbs closes his eyes for a minute.

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**Flashback**

The year is 1989. Gibbs is at home with his five-year-old daughter Kelly. He's helping Kelly get ready for bed. Gibbs tucks his daughter into bed and leans to the side to turn the light off.

"Daddy… Please don't turn off the light."

"Are you scared sweetie?"

"Yes." Kelly nods.

Gibbs sits on the bed beside her.

"Scared of what?"

"The boogeyman."

Gibbs grabs Kelly's favorite stuffed animal, a Horse named Benny, and hands it to her.

"Here… Benny the Horse will keep you safe." He paused for a couple seconds. He now looks to Benny the Horse. "Benny… Do you promise to be a good protector and watch over this precious little angel tonight?" Gibbs asked of Benny the Horse. Gibbs now answers himself in a silly voice. "Mr. Gibbs, you have my word I'll protect her with all my might. And I'll kick the boogeyman with my hind legs if he comes to this room."

Kelly laughs and hugs Benny the Horse. Gibbs just smiles. He leans down to kiss her on the forehead. He leans to the side and turns the nightstand light off. Gibbs walks to the door to turn the overhead lights off.

"Daddy…"

"Yes sweetheart?"

"I love you."

"I love you too." Gibbs turns the light off and Kelly shouts her eyes in order to go to sleep.

**End flashback**

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Gibbs pulls out his phone to call McGee. He makes the call and McGee answers the phone.

"McGee… What's the closest horse farm to the Samson residence?"

"Let me check." McGee said. He immediately looks for a horse farm location. "The closest horse farm is about five miles north of your position, on diamondback road." He added a couple seconds later.

Gibbs shuts his phone because he has his answer. Tony and Ziva enter Jamie's room.

"We found the end of the trail. But it's a dead end. It stops on the stairs of the back porch." Tony stated.

"No blood on the surrounding grass. She probably grabbed a towel from the kitchen as she passed through." Ziva added.

"I know where she is." Gibbs stated as he walks out of the room.

"How do you know where she is?" Ziva wondered.

"Gibbs always knows. He just never tells us." Tony replied.

The three of them get into the car and drive to the horse farm. Once there, they step out of the car and each of them walks in a different direction. Gibbs enters into a stable on the western side of the horse farm. He sees what looks to be the tip of a shoe. He walks to the tip of the shoe is. In the empty horse pen he finds Jamie sleeping with a stuffed animal, a horse, in her arms. Gibbs smiles as he crouches down next to his daughter; who has natural medium auburn colored hair with a couple golden blond, colored streaks.

"Jamie..." Gibbs nudges her to wake her up.

Jamie wakes up and immediately begins swinging her arms at Gibbs. She punches Gibbs in the face and in the chest. Gibbs grabs Jamie's hands as she tries pushing away from him.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Jamie. I'm here to help you. My name is Jethro Gibbs, I'm with NCIS."

Jamie calms down a bit as she realizes it isn't one of the men who attacked her. In her confusion with hitting Gibbs, the wound on her arm starts bleeding again. Gibbs takes his suit jacket off. He tears off the one of the sleeves of his shirt. He wraps the sleeve around Jamie's arm to stop the bleeding. Gibbs gently places his hand on Jamie's chin to lift her face upward so he can see her.

"You're safe now."

Jamie's eyes become very watery. The tears begin to flow from her eyes like a waterfall.

"My family's dead. They killed them. And they're gonna kill me too…"

Gibbs wraps his arms around Jamie and holds her close as she cries.

"I won't let that happen." Gibbs assured her. "I promise."

Gibbs holds Jamie for a couple minutes until she calms down. After calming down, Jamie pulls away from him. Gibbs leans to the side a little bit in order to grab her stuffed animal. He hands it to Jamie. She laughs slightly.

"I'm twenty-three and have a stuffed animal here with me. You must think I'm such a baby for sleeping with a stuffed animal at my age." She laughed.

"Not at all… I also sleep with a stuffed animal." Gibbs said, referring to Benny the Horse.

"You do?"

"Yeah… But don't tell anybody. It's our little secret."

Gibbs now rubs his jaw.

"I'm sorry for punching you."

"That's ok. I can see how you got away from those guys."

"I'm not that strong."

"You're stronger than you look, Jamie."

Tony and Ziva finally enter into the stable, but don't see Jamie as she's blocked from their view since she's inside of the empty horse pen. All they see is Gibbs.

"She's not here, Boss." Tony stated. "I really don't think she would've gone to a horse stable. She probably went to a friend's house or something."

"Tony's right… We looked everywhere." Ziva added.

Jamie leans forward to look out from the horse pen. She's curious as to who came in, but especially because she thinks Tony has a sexy voice and wants to see what he looks like.

"Tony… Ziva… Meet Jamie." Gibbs introduced her.

After helping Jamie up, the four of them leave in order to go back to NCIS Headquarters.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The team, along with Jamie, arrives at NCIS Headquarters. Tony and Ziva go down to the Forensics Lab to see Abby. Gibbs brings Jamie down to Autopsy in order to see Ducky and have him stitch up Jamie's wound. Gibbs leaves Jamie in Autopsy while he goes to the bullpen to talk to McGee.

"McGee, what do you have?"

"Director Shepard wants you in her office, ASAP."

"She can wait." Gibbs said. "Now what do you have?"

"Agent Marcus Frank called to say they've picked up the wife Betty. She's in their custody. He also wanted to know if we found Jamie yet."

"We did… But if he calls again, we haven't found her."

"Right Boss." McGee acknowledged the order. "Also, Sheriff Rutten called…"

"Who?"

"Sheriff Rutten… He's the one who called us about the crime."

"What did he want?"

"Two bodies were found. Repair men. Their uniforms were gone. One of the victims was Jay's friend. They were going to Jay's house in order to fix an emergency electrical problem. It explains why there were no signs of forced entry."

"What else?"

"I've been looking through this file and researching these guys more…"

"Get to the point, McGee."

"These guys are extremely bad news. They're the type of guys who don't leave witnesses…" McGee paused for a second. "Boss… These guys aren't going to stop until Kelly's dead."

"Or they are…" Gibbs said. "And she's not Kelly anymore, McGee. Her name is Jamie."

"But she's still your daughter though."

McGee notices how Gibbs is just glaring at him. He decides to change the subject because he can tell Gibbs doesn't want to talk about it.

"Maybe we should let the CIA take care of this." McGee suggested.

"I'm not handing her to them! They've done a bang-up job of losing her in the first place!" Gibbs barked. "Find them McGee! You find them! I don't care if you have to hack into every government database. Nobody… And I mean nobody hurts my daughter, even if I don't her anymore. You find me something!"

Gibbs walks off in order to pickup Jamie down in Autopsy. After picking up Jamie, the two of them start make their way to the Forensics Lab where Tony, Ziva and Abby are already deep in pointless chatter.

"I can't believe you didn't throw that evidence bag away yet." Tony said as he sees the evidence bag on the table, the one that was in McGee's underwear.

"What's wrong with it?" Abby asked. "It's just a bag Tony."

"It's not just a bag, Abs." Tony stated.

"You might want to throw the bag away." Ziva said. "Really… You should."

"Why? What's wrong with the bag?"

"Let's just say the bag has been in a place it shouldn't have." Tony said. "That bag has seen something none of us dare to even remotely fathom. Or would even want to fathom."

"Abby… The bag was in McGee's underwear." Ziva stated.

"I know."

"Wait…" Ziva is slightly confused. "McGee told you he put it in his underwear?"

"No he didn't."

"Then Ducky told you." Tony said.

"I haven't even seen Ducky today."

"Then who told you?" Ziva asked.

"Nobody."

"Then how on earth do you know where that bag has been?" Tony wondered.

"It smells like Febreze."

"McGee uses Febreze on his underwear?! That's the funniest thing I ever heard." Tony begins laughing hysterically.

Gibbs and Jamie enter the lab.

"GIBBS!!!" Abby jumps in excitement. She runs to Gibbs and jumps on him. Abby squeezes her arms around him tightly. After a minute she pulls backward, looks at him, and just smiles.

"I missed you too, Abs. How are you?"

"I'm good. Even better that you're back." Abby said. "I can't believe you left me here to fend for myself against Tony."

"Hey!" Tony protested.

"Poor Tony…" Ziva said. "Would a cookie make you feel better?"

"Tony loves cookies." Tony replied with a grin upon his face.

Gibbs moves off to the side a little bit. He stands partially behind Jamie. Jamie is now in full view for Abby to see.

"And you must be Jamie." Abby extends her hand to greet her. "You must be so excited."

"If you call being chased by psychopaths exciting… Then yes."

"No, I mean being here with…" Abby begins to say as she notices Gibbs putting his pointer finger over his mouth and shaking his head. Gibbs knew what she was going to say. Abby quickly catches on and stops from finishing her sentence.

"Being here with…" Jamie wonders why Abby didn't finish her sentence.

"Being here with… Us… Yeah… Being here with us… And alive… Mainly just being alive. There's no better thing than being alive. And with us, you're alive. Can't beat that. Being alive, I mean." Abby smiles and grabs her Caf-Pow. She begins slipping the drink and turns away as she realizes she needs to stop talking.

Jamie looks at Gibbs with a confused expression upon her face like she just entered the twilight zone.

"It's the Caf-Pow." Gibbs said. "Caffeine is her best friend."

"Jamie…" Tony tries to get her attention. Jamie looks to him. "Back in the stable you had a stuffed animal. When did you have the time to grab a stuffed animal before being chased out of the house?"

"Tony!" Ziva thinks he should just shut up. "Hush."

"It's alright. I know the people who own the horse farm. They're on vacation right now. I sometimes go there when I just want to get away from everything. So I keep one of my stuffed animals in the stable. I know, it's babyish at my age, but that's just me." Jamie answered. She looks to Gibbs. "I'm rather hungry. Can we get some food?"

"Sure… Is Chinese ok?" Gibbs asked.

"Chinese is fine." Jamie replied.

"Can you watch Jamie for a while, Abs?"

"Anything for you Gibbs."

"Tony, Ziva… Go help McGee with researching."

"Oh man… That's no fair." Tony pouts. "How come Abby gets to play around while we do boring research?"

"It wasn't a suggestion DiNozzo."

"How about Ziva goes to do research while I stay here to help Abby keep Jamie occupied."

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs points to the door. "Go!"

Ziva grabs Tony's arm and drags him out the door.

"Is he always like this?" Jamie wondered.

"Yes." Both Abby and Gibbs replied as they nod their heads.

Gibbs leaves the Forensics Lab in order to go get the food, leaving Jamie in the care of Abby.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Gibbs returns to NCIS Headquarters with the Chinese food. He brings the food to Abby's lab in order to drop it off. While just outside the door he hears a loud, crashing bang come from inside the lab. Gibbs fears for both Jamie and Abby. He drops the food and pulls his gun out. Gibbs enters into the lab only to hear a burst of laughter. He holsters the gun. Abby and Jamie are sitting on the floor near the wall where the small window is. Both of them look up at Gibbs with an expression of innocence upon their faces.

"What in the world are you ladies doing in here?"

"Just conspiring against you." Jamie answered.

"Yup… Conspiring Gibbs. Be afraid. Be very afraid." Abby replied. Both Abby and Jamie laugh.

"Since when does conspiring require a loud bang?"

Abby and Jamie look at each other trying to come up with an answer. They look back to Gibbs.

"We're girls of mystery." Jamie stated. "Explanations are an unnecessary factor."

"Yeah…" Abby agreed. "Besides, you're part of the male species. Your brain won't understand the complexities of the female superiority."

"Good one, Abs!"

"Why thank you, Jamie. So was yours."

"I should really separate you two." Gibbs stated.

Abby whispers into Jamie's ear real quick. They now look to Gibbs who is basically standing in front of them. The girls' facial expressions change. They give Gibbs the sad puppy dog face. For Gibbs, seeing his daughter make the sad puppy dog face brings back so many memories. A long time ago when Kelly, who is now Jamie, would give him the sad puppy dog face, he was never able to resist it and always gave in to what Kelly wanted; another bedtime story, to stay up a little bit later, for him to play her favorite game with her and many other things.

"Now why would you separate us?" Abby said in a sad voice.

"We didn't do anything wrong." Jamie also said in a sad voice.

"We're being good."

"Only angels up in this lab."

Abby and Jamie turns their heads to look at each other.

"But he said he'll separate us." Abby said. "Can you believe he said something as cruel as that?"

"I know! How dare he come in here and try to separate us." Jamie answered.

The girls turn their heads back to face and look at Gibbs.

"This is my lab mister!" Abby shouted.

"Yeah! It's her lab! And you should bow down when in the presence of the Abby Goddess."

"Oh..." Abby seems to like that title. She looks to Jamie again. "Abby Goddess. I like that one."

"You're welcome."

"You two are a bad influence on each other." Gibbs stated.

"Am I a bad influence on you, Jamie?"

"No you aren't, Abby." Jamie replied. "Am I a bad influence on you?

"Of course not, Jamie." Abby answered. "What would make you think such a thing?"

"That Gibbs person said we were a bad influence on each other."

"Well that Gibbs person has no idea what he's talking about." Abby said.

"Maybe that Gibbs person just doesn't want to see us having fun."

"He's usually a sour apple, so it wouldn't surprise me."

"It would've been safer letting DiNozzo watch Jamie." Gibbs stated. "Are you two going to behave, or do I really have to separate you?"

"No! You can't!" Abby exclaimed.

"We won't allow it!" Jamie added.

Abby and Jamie wrap their arms around each other.

"She's mine! You can't have her!" Abby exclaimed. Jamie begins to whimper a little bit.

"Meanie Gibbs wants to take me away." Jamie said in a sad voice. Abby strokes Jamie's hair in a comforting way.

"There, there… Meanie Gibbs isn't taking anyone away."

For the first time, Gibbs has no idea what to say. From this girly display, his mind can't think of anything to say that they won't possibly feed off of. So he remains silent.

"Meanie Gibbs, you look perplexed." Abby said.

"Meanie Gibbs is speechless because he can't handle us." Jamie stated.

"I'm just going to get your food." Gibbs walks out of the lab to where he dropped the food. He re-enters into the lab with the food in hand.

"You can just put the food on the table." Abby said. "Thanks Gibbs."

"I need to do some work. You two behave yourselves. And don't break anything."

"We won't." Jamie said.

"More like… We'll try not to." Abby joked.

"Abs, when you get the chance, can you bring your blankets up to the lounge for Jamie to sleep."

"Sure thing, Gibbs."

Gibbs walks to the exit because, even though he'd love to remain here with his daughter and get to know her, he can't handle the two of the together and wants to get out of this nightmare. While still sitting on the floor, Abby whispers to Jamie again. Gibbs is just outside the lab door at this point.

"Thank you Meanie Gibbs!" The two girls yelled.

Abby and Jamie start laughing hysterically.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

After leaving the twilight zone of Abby's lab, Gibbs enters into the bullpen where Tony, Ziva and McGee are frantically researching anything Intel they can possibly find on the two remaining members of the drug cartel.

"What do you have for me?" Gibbs asked. "And don't say nothing!"

"The Director came down here a couple minutes ago." McGee said. "She's been calling your phone. I think she's…"

"She can wait, McGee." Gibbs stated. "I don't care if I'm an official agent or not. If you have a problem with it…"

"I… I don't have a problem with you leading us, Boss." McGee said. "It's just…" He sees the expression on Gibbs' face. "I'll shut up now."

"Now what do you have for me?!" Gibbs exclaimed in a strong voice.

"We found some very interesting stuff." Ziva stated.

"What'd you find?"

"Where's our food?" Tony wondered.

"These people had much more going on then what we thought…" Ziva begins to say.

"Boss, did you bring us food?" Tony asked.

"Did you ask?"

"Well… No." Tony said.

"Then don't ask me stupid questions." Gibbs said. "What else?"

"They were involved with everything from drugs, weapons, viruses…" Ziva tries to continue her thought.

"Tell me something I don't already know!"

"There was a seventh member." McGee stated.

"What?"

"A seventh member… We found evidence pointing to a strong possibility of there being a seventh member. Though, this member isn't as involved as the other six." McGee said.

"My daughter's life is at sake. I hope, for your sake, you can tell me a lot about this seventh member."

"Unfortunately, we know very little… No ID. No picture…" McGee begins to say.

"How can you have very little?!"

"Take the members and think of them as being in a football game. The six members, the ones we have tons of Intel on, are the players on the field. They're out there doing all the work in order to win the game. The seventh member is more like a person on the sidelines… Let's just say a coach or something. Compared to the members on the field, the seventh member is in the picture, but not actually, IN, the picture." Tony stated.

"I don't like football, DiNozzo."

"What he's trying to say is…" McGee begins to say. "The main focus of surveillance has always been around the six members, not the seventh. The seventh stays far enough away to the point of not being in the spotlight of the main focus which is on the six members."

"It's like the seventh member knew they were under surveillance at all times." Ziva said. "So the seventh member knew to stay under the radar."

"Like a person in a high enough government position who knew exactly what was going on at all times."

"Exactly…" Tony said. "Can we have some food now, Boss? I'm hungry enough to eat a stapler."

Gibbs grabs something from Ziva's desk and hands it to Tony.

"Eat this."

"This is a stapler." Tony said.

"You said you'd eat a stapler. So eat it."

"It was a figure of speech, Boss."

"Find out who the seventh member is." Gibbs stated to the team.

"We'd work much more efficiently if we had food in our stomachs." Tony said.

Gibbs smacks Tony on the back of the head.

"You're right… Food can wait." Tony now sits down.

"Find out who it is. And do it quickly." Gibbs said.

The team goes back to work on researching. Gibbs sits at his desk. He opens the bottom drawer and pulls out a small locked box. Gibbs never cleaned out his desk so his things have been sitting there for the last five months. He takes his keys out and opens the box. He pulls out the photo that's inside of the box and hides it from the view of the others. It's a photo of him and his daughter together, when she was six-years-old. Gibbs just stares at the photo and remembers those days and how happily married he was and how much his daughter meant to him.

Gibbs stares at the photo for two hours. Time seemed to stop for him as he was staring at the photo as he doesn't realize how much time had passed.

"Gibbs..." Abby tries to get his attention because she and Jamie are standing in front of his desk and he hasn't acknowledged their presence yet.

Gibbs comes out of his trance and tries re-adjusting his eyes. He immediately puts the photo in the box and closes it. He takes a quick look around to see Tony, Ziva and McGee all at their desks sleeping.

"Yes?" Gibbs asked.

"Jamie's tired." Abby said. "I already put the blankets and a pillow in the lounge."

"Alright…" Gibbs said. "The lounge is just around the corner, Jamie." He points in the direction of the lounge.

"Thanks." Jamie replied and walks away to go to the lounge.

After Jamie is gone from view, Gibbs looks to Abby who is still standing in front of his desk.

"Is there something you need, Abs?"

"In the passed two hours I had to go see Ducky for a while. That's also when I brought the blankets and pillow to the lounge. So Jamie was in the lab by herself for a while. When I got back, I noticed she drew a picture. She draws very well, by the way. She drew a picture of someone…" Abby begins to say.

"Abs, people who draw, may draw another person."

"Yes… But, who, she drew is the odd thing. So I started asking her a bunch of questions." Abby paused for a second. "Gibbs… She drew a picture of a person she's never seen before."

"Abs, people can draw and just make-up what a person looks like as they go along. It's not an uncommon thing for an artist."

"It's an uncommon thing when the picture looks like this." Abby hands Gibbs the drawing.

Gibbs is perplexed at the moment.

"Gibbs… She never met or seen him before. Yet she drew him perfectly."

"Then how?"

"Now that's something I can't explain. All she says is… It's the face of the man who haunts her dreams." Abby said. "Maybe Ducky may have an answer through one of his famous stories."

"It's rather late to be listening to a Ducky story."

"His insight and unending amount of stories may give you an answer."

"Guess I'll go see Ducky than."

They both go to the elevator. Abby gets off on her floor. Gibbs continues down to Autopsy to chat with Ducky. Gibbs enters into Autopsy where Ducky is just finishing cleaning up a bit.

"Ah, Jethro… Welcome."

"Hey Duck."

"How's Jamie doing?"

"Her arm is better thanks to you."

"I tried my best. I must say… Jamie is a very sweet young lady."

"I got a question for you, Ducky."

"Oh?" Ducky wondered. "I also have a question for you. But you go first."

"Jamie drew a picture of someone, but has never met or seen that person before, yet she drew him perfectly… How?"

"Hmm… This isn't my field of expertise. Though, it does remind me of a man I met in Austria. It's a fascinating story, I might add. This young man was a painter. He made nine paintings before he was shot in the head…"

"Ducky, does this story have a point?"

"That it does, Jethro. You see… This remarkable young man didn't die. After being shot, he lost his memory, never to recover it. But here's where it gets interesting." Ducky stated. "Ironically, after being shot, he still loved painting. The nine paintings he made before being shot… Are the same nine paintings he made after being shot. In the same exact order of how he made them, I might add. Rather fascinating how the mind works."

"What exactly are you getting at?"

"You see Jethro… Subconsciously the man knew he loved painting and knew about the nine paintings he made. But he couldn't actually recall any of it. The memory was there, just not in the conscious part of his brain."

"That's like Jamie's love for horses. Before the accident she loved horses and begging me to get her one."

"And she still does, correct?"

"Yes… She still loves horses. But this still doesn't quite explain the drawing of the man. She says it's the face of a man who haunts her dreams."

"Well Jethro, I told you this isn't my field of expertise. Possibly, if this man was one of the last people she saw, before the accident, than she could subconsciously be recalling that memory in the form of a dream."

"That makes sense, Ducky. Thanks."

"You're quite welcome."

"Now what's your question?"

"We've been friends for a long time." Ducky stated. "Why didn't you ever tell me about your family?"

"I once had a wife who I loved more than anything in the world. When Kelly was born, I was even happier. I felt like the luckiest man on the planet. They both meant everything to me. Then it was all taken away." Gibbs said. "Painful memories, Duck… Painful memories."

Gibbs turns and walks out of Autopsy. He stands near the elevator and leans against the wall. He takes out the picture Jamie drew and stares at it. He recalls the conversation the team had about a seventh member and thought about what Ducky said. For a couple minutes he stares at the drawing. Suddenly, he realizes why Jamie drew the picture. It all makes sense to him now. He realizes she drew the man's picture because she saw him on the disk from before the accident; fifteen years ago. That's how she knows his face. Gibbs now knows who the seventh member is.

"That son-of-a-bitch." Gibbs stated softly to himself.

Gibbs walks into the elevator in order to go upstairs.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Gibbs walks to the lounge where Jamie is. As he enters into the lounge, he notices she's still awake. Gibbs sits in the chair across from the couch where Jamie is lying. There's a small table between them. Jamie smiles and sits upright on the couch. Gibbs wants so badly to sit next to his daughter and to be a family again, but realizes he shouldn't get too close to her, especially since she doesn't remember him.

"How are you holding up?" Gibbs wondered.

"I've had better days. Just tired, but it's kind of hard to go to sleep."

"Is there something bothering you?"

"In a way…" Jamie said. "Well… Maybe a few things."

"If you want to talk about it, I'm here for you."

"It's just…" Jamie paused and takes a deep breathe. "I don't understand why this is happening to me. I mean, my life was turned completely upside-down in a matter of minutes. Why me?"

"Sometimes bad things happen to good people without warning, and without reason. I see it happen a lot in my line of work. It's not fair, I know. We just have to make the best of a bad situation… No matter what the situation entails."

"Those men intruded into the house and slaughtered my family like they were nothing. How can people have such cruelty and malice over human life?"

"I don't think anybody truly has an answer to a question like that."

"I suppose you're right." Jamie said. "Things are never going to be the same for me. Not now, not ever."

"Like I said… Just going to have to make the best of a bad situation."

"Can I ask you something, Agent Gibbs?"

"Sure… And call me Jethro."

"Ok, Jethro. How did you know where to find me?"

"I was in your room…" Gibbs begins to say.

"Please tell me you didn't read my diary?"

"No… I was just looking around your room at the time. I saw you had tons of things that dealt with horses. So I knew you loved horses and thought… Maybe that's where she might be hiding at."

"Oh ok… For a second there I thought I was going have to kick your ass."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Gibbs chuckled. "Besides, you've already kicked my ass. I don't think I can handle round two against you."

Jamie laughs slightly.

"You know… My brother Kevin and I would fight all the time. It was more like play fighting though. But a couple times it got a little out of hand."

"How so?"

"This one time we started play fighting on a small bridge. I don't know what bridge parts are called. But there was a gap between the inner, main section and the outer section of the bridge. The outer section was kind of like a small walkway. We were play fighting and jumping between the two sections. Probably wasn't the smartest idea at the time."

"You fell through, didn't you?"

"Yeah…" Jamie replied. "I lost my balance and fell through the gap."

"Oh my…"

"Luckily it wasn't much of a fall. The bridge wasn't very high. The inner part of my right arm was completely scratched up because it scraped against the corner of the inner section of the bridge as I fell through the gap. I landed in the creek below and broke my leg."

"That's awful."

"Kevin immediately came to my aid. He lifted me up and carried me three miles back to the house. He would always look out for me."

"Sounds like he was a good brother."

"The best."

Things fall silent for a minute.

"What about you, Jethro. You have any family?"

Gibbs looks down for a couple seconds as an overwhelming amount of family memories race through his head. He sighs and looks to Jamie.

"Once… A long time ago."

"Touchy subject?"

"Yeah… You could say that. My team is my family now."

"Well, the definition of a family can be used loosely. Could be immediate family, any type of relative or just people like your team. People who look out for one another, watch each others backs and are there for you when you may need them most can be considered family. In high school I was on the swim team. Our team was like sisters. So yeah, a team can be considered a family too." Jamie stated. "I honestly wasn't the best swimmer, but to us, it wasn't about competition."

"I love my team. They're a good bunch."

"What's with Abby? She was extremely excited to see you. Are you and her…" Jamie didn't want to finish the sentence because of what it implies.

"No." Gibbs laughed. "Abs is just a really close friend to me."

"Oh..." Jamie giggled. "I'm sorry if I implied something going on between you and her."

"It's totally okay." Gibbs said. "By the way, when I left the lab to go get the food, you kind of didn't look like you wanted to be left there."

"Abby seemed a bit koo-koo at first so yeah, I was kind of afraid of her." Jamie laughed. "But we definitely clicked. She's awesome."

"Yeah… I noticed you two bonded while I was gone."

"Yeah, that was so fun. You should've seen the look on your face." Jamie giggled.

"Just when I thought I've seen it all. The Abby/Jamie combination leaves me in the fog wondering what in the world just happened. I swear it felt like I entered the twilight zone."

"I wouldn't doubt it. You looked like you just wanted to get out of there."

"Let's just say, I've never been so afraid in my life."

"Oh stop… We weren't that bad." Jamie laughed.

"You two would even leave DiNozzo speechless. And he…"

"…Loves to talk." Both Gibbs and Jamie stated at the same time. The two of them laugh.

There's a moment of silence between them.

"I think I can go to sleep now. Thanks for the chat, Jethro."

"Is there anything you need? Another blanket, pillow, water… Anything?"

"No." Jamie answered. "Well…"

"Yes?"

"Can you just stay here until I fall asleep?"

"Sure."

Jamie slowly lies down on the couch. She pulls the blanket over herself and closes her eyes as Gibbs remains sitting in the chair he's in. He watches Jamie as she lies there on the couch. As he watches Jamie, he thinks of all the times he used to read her a bedtime story.

An hour passes and Jamie is sleeping. Gibbs stands up. He quietly walks over to Jamie and stands next to her. Gibbs looks down at Jamie.

"I really wish you would remember me." Gibbs said softly.

Gibbs leans down and gives Jamie a gentle kiss on the forehead. He turns to walk away. Jamie slowly opens her eyes and watches as Gibbs walks to the door. Gibbs turns the lights off, walks out the door and out of Jamie's view. Jamie is now in the room all alone.

"I do." Jamie said softly to herself in reply to what Gibbs said before leaving.

Jamie closes her eyes and tries to go back to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Wednesday**

**Chapter 9**

Sometime in the morning, around 07:30, Tony finally wakes up. Ziva is still sleeping at her desk while McGee must be awake and walking around somewhere. Tony sees Gibbs walking over to the bullpen. Tony pretends to work while desperately trying to re-adjust his eyes.

"Boss, I've been working all night long and…"

"No you haven't, DiNozzo."

"What makes you think that?"

"You have a paperclip stuck in your forehead." Gibbs stated. "Your head must have been down long enough for that to happen."

"Alright, maybe I took an hour rest."

"More like a couple hours, DiNozzo." Gibbs stated. "It's 08:30 in the morning."

"It is?"

"No, DiNozzo… I'm just making this up as I go along."

"So there's no a paper clip stuck in my forehead. Good joke, Boss… I almost fell for that one."

Gibbs shakes his head and walks to the lounge to check if Jamie is awake yet. While Gibbs is away, Abby walks passed the bullpen on her way to the elevator. Tony quickly runs after her.

"Abs… I wanted to ask you something."

Abby starts to laugh. She puts her hand over her mouth try and hold her laughter in.

"What? What are you laughing at? What's so funny?"

"Why do you have a paper clip stuck in your forehead?"

"I…" Tony pulls the paper clip out of his forehead.

Abby begins laughing again.

"What's so funny this time? I took the paper clip out of my forehead!"

Abby places her hand over her mouth once again in order to hold the laughter in.

"The paper clip left an imprint didn't it?"

"Yeah…" Abby nods her head.

"Okay, forget the paper clip. There's something I want to ask you."

"Sure thing Paper Clip Boy. What is it?"

"Funny." Tony said. "Do you know what YGS stands for?"

"Yes I do." Abby replied. She now heads to the elevator.

"Hold up!" Tony runs after her. "What does it stand for?"

"It's just a stupid made up CIA term. Basically, if the CIA wants to takeover a crime-scene and they think the person they're trying to take it from is an idiot, then they refer to it as a YGS site. By the time the person figures out what YGS stands for, it's already too late. The person already lost the crime-scene a long time ago. So what YGS stands for fits it perfectly as it's a way to laugh at the person they stole the crime-scene from. YGS stands for; You Got Screwed. It's just a stupid CIA thing to see if a person is dumb enough to fall for it." Abby answered.

"Humph..."

"You didn't happen to fall for it, did you?"

"No… Of course not." Tony said. "Ziva did."

Tony turns around in order to go to his desk because he knows has an answer to the question that's been plaguing his mind.

"Whoa… Hey! Ziva… Hi… What's up?"

Ziva gives Tony a dirty look.

"You didn't happen to hear that conversation did you?"

Ziva nods her head.

"Hmm… I thought so." Tony said. He looks at his wrist. "Oh wow! Look at the time. Yeah, umm… I have to go."

Tony walks away. Ziva and Abby look at each other. They now look at Tony who is walking away from them.

"You're not even wearing a watch." Abby stated.

"Tony… Nice paper clip imprint!" Ziva yelled.

Gibbs enters into the lounge. He turns the light on.

"Good morning, Jethro."

"Oh, you're awake."

"I've been awake for a couple minutes now."

"Sleep well?"

"Sort of…"

"I spoke with the Director of NCIS this morning. We're going move you out of here okay."

"Where are you going to move me to?"

"Those two men most likely know you're with us. And they're probably going to try to get you, even in here. We have tight security, but in all honesty it could be better. So I don't think this is the safest place for you. I called in a favor from an old friend in the FBI…" Gibbs begins to say.

"But I don't want to go!"

"Jamie, I'm trying to do what's best for you. In order to find these guys, I'm going to need the team out in the field, which means no one will be here for you."

"What about Abby?"

"I would love for you to stay with us. But it would be safer somewhere else right now."

"Alright…" Jamie said. "Just do me a favor."

"Sure… What?"

"Kill the men who murdered my family."

"I'll do whatever I have to do in order to keep you safe."

Gibbs and Jamie walk out of the lounge and over to the bullpen. Gibbs goes to his desk to pick up a few things. Jamie walks passed Ziva's desk and out into the open area near the window in order to look outside. The elevator door opens. A janitor steps off while pushing a cart. The janitor looks around. Jamie sees the janitor and her eyes widened. Jamie is now frozen in fear. She looks to Gibbs in concern, but mostly out of the fear she's feeling. From the look in her eyes Gibbs knows something is wrong. He quickly looks toward the elevator where he sees the janitor pulling a gun out of the cart. Jamie is still near the window, frozen with fear.

"Jamie!" Gibbs yelled.

Gibbs pulls out his gun and runs toward Ziva's desk. The janitor is now close to having his gun pointed at Jamie. Gibbs hops onto Ziva's desk and dives over the partition. He points his gun at the janitor and fires three shots. All three shots hit the janitor in the chest, around the heart area. The janitor falls backward onto the cart, knocking it over. Gibbs falls to the floor. The janitor was never able to fire a shot and now lies dead on the floor. Tony, Ziva and McGee run into the area with their guns drawn.

"Boss, what happened?" Tony asked.

"No time for explanations. They're here. Search the building. There's still one person left."

Gibbs stands up and runs to Jamie. The team and a bunch of other agents begin a man-hunt throughout the building. Jamie is still partially frozen in fear. Gibbs wants to comfort her by wrapping his arms around her since Jamie is his daughter. So Gibbs is conflicted as to how he should actually comfort her.

"Are you ok?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes." Jamie answered.

Gibbs gently takes hold of Jamie's arm and walks her to his desk.

"Hide under the desk."

Jamie gets under the desk in order to hide as Gibbs keeps an eye out for any trouble. After thirty minutes, the team returns to the bullpen.

"There's no sign of the second person, Boss." Tony stated.

"This guy wouldn't just come alone." Gibbs said. "He's here… Somewhere."

"Maybe he's not actually in the building." McGee said.

"Then search the outside!" Gibbs exclaimed.

The team goes to the elevator in order to leave the building. Once outside, they begin a search. After five minutes they notice a car with a driver who matches the description of the final member of the drug cartel. They get into position to remain unseen by the person in the car. Ziva calls Gibbs.

"We found him. He's in a car waiting in the parking lot."

"Did he spot you?"

"No."

"Then tell everybody to hold their positions. I'm going to take care of this." Gibbs closes the phone to hang up.

"You're not going to leave me, are you?" Jamie asked as she peeks out from behind the desk.

"Just stay here. I'm going to end this once and for all."

Gibbs walks to the janitors' closet. He grabs a janitor's uniform and a cap. After getting dressed he makes his way outside. Once outside, Gibbs sees the car. He begins walking toward the car while having his head facing downward so all the driver can see is the top of the cap. Gibbs also has his hands behind his back, holding a gun.

"What's Gibbs doing?" Ziva asked Tony while both of them are watching from the distance and are unseen by the driver.

"I don't know. But whatever it is, it's not going to be good for that guy." Tony replied.

Gibbs finally gets to the car. From inside the car, the man looks out at him.

"It's about time. Get in before we're spotted." The driver said.

Gibbs lifts his head and points the gun at the driver.

"Your buddy is dead." Gibbs stated.

"You won't shoot me." The driver just leans back in the seat.

"I wouldn't count on that if I were you."

"I'm an unarmed man. You can't just shoot an unarmed person."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Aren't you going to arrest me? Read me my rights. I deserve a fair trail."

"I'm not going to arrest you. You hunted my daughter. Now… You're the prey, not her. And you really want me to read you, your rights. Well here are, your, particular rights." Gibbs said. "You have the right to shut the fuck up. You have the right to be hunted. You have the right to me kicking the crap out of you if I feel like doing so." He notices the man's hand between the car seats, reaching for a gun. "You have the right to be on Ducky's autopsy table. Cause you have the right to be dead."

Gibbs fires two shots into the driver's chest and walks away. The sixth member of the drug cartel is now dead, leaving only one member left, the seventh. Gibbs meets up with Tony, Ziva and McGee.

"Good job, Boss." McGee said.

"Go back inside. I'll be there later." Gibbs stated to the team.

"Where you going, Boss?" Tony wondered.

"There's something I need to take care of."

"Do you need us?" Ziva asked.

"This is something I need to do on my own."

Gibbs walks away in order to go to his car. The team goes back inside NCIS Headquarters.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

At a nearby park, Gibbs meets up with the man Jamie drew a picture of. The man is sitting on a bench by the water's edge. Gibbs walks over to him and the man stands up to greet him. The man is Special Agent Marcus Frank of the CIA.

"Good to see you again, Gibbs. I heard the last two members of the drug cartel are dead. I already have an agent bringing Jamie's mother back to their house. Jamie can go home now."

"Marcus… You son-of-a-bitch!" Gibbs punches Marcus in the stomach.

Marcus falls to the ground gasping for breath.

"What was that for?"

"You know exactly what that was for! I know you're the seventh member, Marcus."

Marcus stands up. He chuckles slightly while holding his stomach due to the pain of the blow he received from Gibbs.

"You can't prove anything, Gibbs. The disk was practically destroyed fifteen years ago. The only piece of evidence on that disk which had my face, just happened to be the in the section of the disk that received the most damage so it was unrecoverable. It was the only evidence that could even remotely link me to them."

"You gave them my daughter too, didn't you?!"

"I hid your daughter from them, Gibbs. It was me who put her in a safe place. It was me who kept her safe all these years. I could've fed her to the dogs if I wanted to! She remained safe for fifteen years because of me! I never gave them you or her!"

"But you gave your own agent away fifteen years ago."

"With him I had no choice. I never dealt with these people directly." Marcus stated. "The one time… The one time I do, I get caught on camera."

"So you gave him up."

"What choice did I have?"

"How about not dealing with those scumbags in the first place?!"

"That's easier said than done, Gibbs."

"My family saw what was on that disk. My wife contacted the CIA and let me guess… She spoke with you, didn't she?"

"Yes she did… So what?"

"Then you gave her up in order to cover your own ass. Just like you did with your own agent. The agent you sent to pick up my family!"

"No choice, Gibbs. I had to."

Gibbs punches Marcus in the stomach again. Once again, Marcus falls to the ground gasping for breath.

"You're a bastard, Marcus. Always was and always will be."

"I know I am. But at least when I found out your daughter was still alive I didn't give her up." Marcus stands up.

"And if she happened to recover her memory? What then?"

"Well… That would've been a different story."

Gibbs punches Marcus in the stomach, then in the face. Marcus falls to the ground for a third time. After a minute he stands up. Marcus leans toward the side and spits the blood out of his mouth.

"I definitely deserved that one. I know."

"How could you Marcus?"

"I just got caught up in the wrong…" Marcus paused. "It's tough to explain, Gibbs. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"You betrayed your country!"

"I just got mixed up with the wrong people. I couldn't just get out. I had to…" Marcus paused for a couple seconds. "Slowly, over the course of the last fifteen years, give each of them away one by one to not make it look suspicious. Besides, it was extremely hard to get it done because most of the time I didn't know where they located. But I wanted out, Gibbs."

"I don't care for your reasons of why you got involved with them in the first place. What I care about is putting you where you belong… Behind bars… Or a coffin."

"Now that's definitely easier said than done, Gibbs."

"I'll find a way, Marcus. I promise you that."

"You can't touch me, Gibbs. I'm CIA. You got nothing on me and never will."

"You may think you're hot stuff right now, Marcus. But eventually you'll be where you belong. One way or another."

"What are you going do, Gibbs? Shoot me? What it all comes down to is this… There's not a damn thing you can do about it." Marcus said. "I'm untouchable."

"Shooting you would be a waste of a perfectly good bullet. You're pathetic Marcus, you know that."

"Untouchable, Gibbs. Un… Touchable."

"We'll just see about that."

Gibbs turns and walks away. Marcus leans to the side and spits more blood out of his mouth. He looks up toward Gibbs who is walking away.

"You can't touch me, Gibbs! You got nothing on me! No evidence! Nothing!" Marcus shouted. "You hear me! Nothing!"

Gibbs reaches into his pocket. He takes out the picture Jamie drew of Marcus and looks at it as he continues walking. Gibbs immediately crumbles up the drawing and tosses it in a trash can as he passes one.

"I'll find some way of getting you, Marcus. Even if it's the last thing I do." Gibbs said softly to himself.

Gibbs heads back to NCIS Headquarters in order to pick up Jamie so he can bring her back home to her mother Betty.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Gibbs returns to NCIS Headquarters. He goes up to the bullpen where the team is, including Jamie. The team stands off little to the side so Gibbs can talk to her.

"Jamie…" Gibbs tries to get her attention as he approaches.

"Yes Jethro?"

"Are you ready to go home? Your mom is there waiting for you."

"She is!" Jamie exclaimed in excitement because she had no idea if her mom was alive or not. "I'm so glad she was visiting a friend at the time all this happened."

"Yeah it's a good thing."

"Thank you so much, Jethro."

Jamie smiles at Gibbs. She turns to the rest of the team to say her goodbyes.

"It was nice to meet you all. And thank you so much for your help and hospitality."

"It was nice to meet you too, Jamie." McGee said.

"Glad to have helped." Tony said.

"Good luck, Jamie." Ziva said.

"Hope your arm gets better soon." Ducky said.

"Thank you all."

Jamie now turns to Abby.

"Abs…"

"Jamie…"

The two of them smile and give each other a great big hug. After a minute they back away from each other.

"Now you…" Jamie begins to say. "You must give me a call sometime so we can hang out."

"Most definitely…" Abby replied cheerfully.

"Are you ready to go home now, Jamie?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes I am."

Gibbs and Jamie walk to the elevator. Jamie stops. She looks back at the team, smiles and quickly waves. Then she turns toward the elevator. Jamie and Gibbs get onto the elevator together. They take the elevator to the ground floor and leave the building. They get into the car and Gibbs drives her home.

Through the entire car ride back to Jamie's house, neither of them says anything. Both of them, though they may want to say something, can't figure out what to say to each other. So they remain silent. The entire car ride is pure silence, not even a peep.

Gibbs pulls the car up in front of Jamie's house where Betty is on the porch waiting for her daughter's return.

"Well… Here we are." Gibbs said.

"Jethro…" Jamie paused.

"Yes?"

"Thank you." Jamie said instead of what she would rather have said.

"You're welcome, Jamie."

Jamie gets out of the car and closes the door. She runs to her mother Betty and hugs her. Gibbs watches as he wishes to have what Betty has right now. He cracks a slight smile as he drives away. Betty walks inside the house in order to make Jamie something to eat. Jamie remains outside and watches as the car goes down the road.

"Goodbye, Dad." Jamie said softly to herself. She walks into the house and closes the door.

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Before going back to NCIS Headquarters, Gibbs goes to the store and also his local coffee supplier.

Once at NCIS Headquarters he steps off the elevator and walks to the bullpen. Gibbs is carrying a bag. He immediately walks over to his desk, places his coffee down and the bag as well. Gibbs notices Tony is looking at the bag.

"Is there some reason you're staring at my bag, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"Does that bag happen to have a badge for me?" Tony asked. "Cause I still don't have one. Or maybe some food cause I'm hungry."

Gibbs opens the bag and tosses Tony a box of Fruit Loops.

"You'll find a glow-in-the-dark badge at the bottom of the box." Gibbs said.

"Ha-ha!" Ziva begins laughing.

"Ziva..." Gibbs tries to get her attention.

"Yes?"

Gibbs tosses Ziva a box of Fruit Loops to her as well. Ziva is perplexed as to why she gets a box of Fruit Loops too.

"Until DiNozzo gets his new badge, your badge is also at the bottom of the box."

"Ha-ha!" Tony starts laughing.

"Oh come on!" Ziva protested. "Are you kidding me?!"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Gibbs holds out his hand in Ziva's direction.

Ziva walks over to Gibbs and hands him her badge.

"When he gets a badge, you'll get yours back."

"What about McGee's badge?" Ziva said.

"Don't get me into this?!" McGee exclaimed.

McGee walks toward Gibbs in order to hand him his badge.

"Here you go, Boss." McGee said.

"Put your badge away, McGee."

McGee, who is halfway between his desk and Gibbs', just stands there wondering why he gets to keep his badge. Gibbs reaches into his bag and grabs an item. Gibbs tosses McGee a bottle of Febreze.

"Ha-ha!" Tony laughs. "No underwear is fully clean until it smells like Febreze, eh McGee."

"How is that fair?! I get my badge taken away and McGee just gets a bottle of Febreze." Ziva protested again.

Gibbs glares at Ziva.

"And I have absolutely no problem with having to wait until Tony receives his new badge." Ziva said with a smile. She sits down in her chair.

Gibbs' phone rings. He answers it. The team looks over, wondering what the phone-call is about. After a minute, Gibbs puts the phone down and stands up.

"Grab your gear… McGee, call Ducky. Tony, gas the truck." Gibbs tosses the keys to Tony. He walks out of the bullpen in order to go to the elevator.

"Can McGee gas the truck this time?" Tony wondered.

"An order isn't debatable, DiNozzo." Gibbs stated. "Let's go."

"Okay… What do we got, Boss?" Tony asked in the excitement of working on a new case.

"A dead Petty Officer on a beach."

"Do I really have to go with a glow-in-the-dark badge?" Ziva asked.

"Yes." Gibbs answered.

"Just wondering…" Ziva said.

The team is finally on the elevator. Gibbs smirks as he's happy to be back. The elevator door closes.

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Sometime later in the night, Jamie is at home in her bedroom. She's getting ready for bed. She pulls out her diary from behind the night-stand. She sits on the bed and opens the diary. Jamie flips through to find the next blank page. She begins writing. After a couple minutes she's done and puts the diary back behind the night-stand. Jamie turns the light off, lies down, pulls the covers over herself and goes to sleep.

**The diary entry**

The passed couple days have been rather intense and emotional in various ways. I can't even begin to describe the way I feel about it. It was confusing. I had a rush of feelings just swarming my every thought. I wanted to cry. I wanted to throw a fit. I honestly don't know what I wanted exactly. A few words were and still are tossed around in my mind like balls in a bingo machine; Hope, loss, fear, forgiveness and memories, just to name a few. Hope: The one thing that probably got me through these days, the hope of staying alive. Loss: Loosing two of the people who I hold dear to my heart has made me sad, and I'll never get them back. Fear: I've never been so scared in my life with the overwhelming feeling that I might die. Forgiveness: The church preaches forgiveness, but how do you forgive certain things that happen in life. Memories: The memories of the people I love will forever remain in my mind, along with others that I may wish to forget. I may never find the closure I need until forgiveness sets itself upon my heart. But how do I find forgiveness through so much pain and so much hurt? Is my heart even capable of finding such a divine state of bliss as forgiveness? Life takes some odd turns. Things happen without warning. Lives can be forever changed by particular events. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Agent Jethro Gibbs… In more ways than one. What can I say about him? The only thing I can think of. Agent Jethro Gibbs… The man who saved me… The man who helped create me… The man who abandoned me… The man who I feel so hurt by… The man who it took eleven years to finally remember… The man who I pretended to not know…

Do I dare try to find it in my heart to forgive him for abandoning me?

**End diary entry**

**THE END…**

…**yet TO BE CONTINUED**

This concludes part 1 of the story "A Link to the Past". I do hope you enjoyed this story. And feel free to send me a message if you like.


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